Memories of infancy, early schooling, Baltimore provender, "The Larval Stage of a Bookworm," and other autobiographical essays culled from Happy Days (1940), Newspaper Days (1941), and Heathen Days (1943) and splendidly—which is to say buoyantly—introduced by Edward L. Galligan. Readers are alerted to Mencken's relish of idiosyncracies, his "admiration for competence," his "delight in language"; warned of his racism and reminded of his irreverence (which attracted Richard Wright); and then turned loose with this "genuine razzle-dazzle of a book." Here is Mencken, at 18, applying for his first newspaper job, disappointed and elated at being told "to drop in again of an evening." "I came back, you may be sure—and found him missing. . . . The next night I was there again—and found him too busy to notice me. And so the night following, and the next, and the next. To make an end, this went on for four weeks, night in and night out, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. A tremendous blizzard came down upon Baltimore. . . but I hoofed it ever hopefully to the Herald office, and then hoofed it sadly home. There arrived eventually. . . the evening of Thursday, February 23, 1899. I found Max reading copy, and for a few minutes he did not see me. Then his eyes lifted, and he said casually: 'Go out to Govanstown, and see if anything is happening there. We are supposed to have a Govanstown correspondent, but he hasn't been heard from for six days!" (Continued on page 136.) Alfred A. Knopf writes—in the companion centenary volume, On Mencken, edited by John Dorsey (above)—that the three Days books did not sell well (they are now o.p.); at the very least, these two new works should be mutually reinforcing. There is entertainment to spare in Mencken, and lots of snazzy writing.
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 1980
ISBN: 0394747607
Page Count: -
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1980
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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